Voters in Osun State have been urged to sue the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for ‘wasting’ their votes.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, said this during an interview on Arise TV.
His statement comes after the Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal sacked Governor Ademola Adeleke for overvoting at over 700 polling units in the Governorship election.
The tribunal asked INEC to give a Certificate of Returns to former Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
“What the voters in those areas have to do is to sue INEC for damages that you have wasted my votes,” Mr. Falana said.
Falana also said it will be a daunting task for Adeleke’s lawyers to overturn the verdict of the tribunal.
“Looking at the judgment, I believe very strongly that it is going to be a daunting task to impeach the judgement. INEC has to be held completely responsible for what happened.
“INEC will have to go back to the drawing table so that we will not have this experience. INEC will have to put its house in order, if we have this in a presidential election, where you issue one or two reports, it will have a crisis of monumental proportions,” he said.
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Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed why it is silent after the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo overturned the victory of Adeleke at the July 16, 2022, governorship polls.
Recall that the All-Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Adegboyega Oyetola had petitioned the victory of Adeleke of the People Democratic Party (PDP) on two grounds of over-voting and certificate forgery.
The tribunal, while noting that APC’s claim of overvoting was not complete, agreed that there was evidence of over voting in the July 16 guber election.
It also held that “after deducting invalid votes due to overvoting, Adegboyega Oyetola scored 314, 931 while Governor Ademola Adeleke scored 290, 666.”
According to the tribunal, Adeleke is academically qualified to contest as Osun governor.
Speaking on the verdict, the national commissioner and chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC, Festus Okoye, said the judicial process must be allowed to run its full course.
On the grounds of overvoting during the polls and how easy it was for politicians to compromise Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
Okoye told a national daily, “The judicial process must be allowed to run its full course.
“The governorship election tribunal is the court of first instance in election petition proceedings. The aggrieved party in this instance has indicated a desire to appeal against the judgment. It will be prejudicial to prejudge the outcome of the appeal.”
He added that it is more prudent to await the outcome of the appeal.
